Steve McQueen

Faye Dunaway

Paul Burke

Jack Weston

Biff McGuire

Addison Powell

Astrid Heeren

Gordon Pinsent

Yaphet Kotto

Sidney Armus

Richard Bull

Peg Shirley

Patrick Horgan

Carol Corbett

Tom Rosqui

Michael Shillo

Nora Marlowe

Sam Melville

Ted Gehring

Paul Verdier

Judy Pace

Bruce Glover

John Orchard

Johnny Silver

Jon Shank

Nikita Knatz

Haskell Wexler

Norman Jewison

Lynn Stalmaster

Theadora Van Runkle

Robert F. Boyle

Tom Downing

Hal Ashby

Del Armstrong

Ralph E. Winters

Edward G. Boyle

Michel Legrand

Byron 'Buzz' Brandt

Walter Goss

Jay Sebring

Walter Mirisch

Jim Henderling

Walter Hill

Lynn Del Kail

Jack N. Reddish

James D. Young

Ralph Gerling

Morris Rosen

Gaylin P. Schultz

Clem Portman

Richard Portman

John Moio

Ross A. Maehl

Roy Jenson

Loren Janes

Marshall J. Wolins

Alan Trustman

Crime

Romance

The Thomas Crown Affair

The Mirisch Company

Norman Jewison Productions

United States of America

English

plan

businessman

in love with enemy

boredom

hold-up robbery

insurance fraud

heist

theft

millionaire

insurance agent

CinemaSerf

This is a wonderfully understated, classy heist movie that demonstrates clearly the panache of Steve McQueen as an actor. In the title role, he is a millionaire who presents an outward image of a man who has everything, but privately is meticulously planning and executing a bank robbery that nets him over $2 million. When the insurers bring in their best investigator - the glamorous and sassy Faye Dunaway, she quickly susses out what's what and we have a cunning game of cat and mouse tinged with some unsentimental romance. The Michel Legrand score is superb; the dialogue taut, occasionally witty and Norman Jewison's direction is subtle and attractive leading to the scene at the end that you could never forget. Great stuff.

They don't make 'em like this anymore, and that might be a good thing. McQueen is millionaire Thomas Crown, who hires a bunch of D.B. Cooper look-alikes to knock over a bank and give the money to him. He jets to Geneva with cash in tow, and opens a secret account that he uses to pay off his gang in installments. Fine. Jack Weston plays Erwin, one of the crooks who you just know is going to screw everything up. The Boston police are stumped, led by the lead stumped detective Eddie Malone (Paul Burke). There are no prints, no one seems to be able to give an accurate description of the gang, and the cops are at a dead end. Enter, almost thirty six minutes into this, Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway). Vicki is stylish, comes off as kind of dumb, and the perfect insurance investigator. She and Malone spend about three minutes deducing Crown is behind the robbery. Vicki is in it for the money, she gets ten percent of the more than two million dollars stolen as her salary. Vicki goes to the extraordinary means of kidnapping Erwin's child in order for him to get a large amount of money and prove he had something to do with the robbery. Vicki also makes herself available to Crown, under the watchful eye of Malone's cronies. Crown and Vicki fall in love, or is Vicki taking this investigation into some questionable territory? She lays all her cards on the table, telling Crown she is on to him, and literally ON him. Most of the rest of the film consists of this battle of twits, as one tries to outsmart the other. Finally, Crown comes up with the ultimate test for the unflappable Vicki, offering to rob the bank again and see if she will turn him in or not.

This film premiered in 1968, and was the basis for the 1999 superior-in-every-way remake starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. I, too, premiered in 1968, and felt ancient while witnessing what the fashion and interior design worlds were forcing onto my young mod parents. McQueen is cool and confident, Dunaway is cool and confident, and the film is cold and aloof. The viewer does not care one iota for these people, and I think the director senses this. Jewison pulls out every cinematic trick available- thank God as a nation we were able to reject the split-screen process and recognize it for what it was- stupid. The investment made in these two characters is so minimal, I knew every move they would make. Watching this is like watching an episode of "Columbo." The crime occurs, we know who did it, and we are supposed to be entertained by the process of detecting. In this film, the sexual byplay and tension is supposed to be the entertainment, and it is not. The chess scene is cutesy, the long kiss does not seem that long, and is concluded with another of Jewison's tricks. "The Windmills of Your Mind" is one of the worst Best Song Academy Award winners ever. It sounded like it was written in a recording studio bathroom while the singer cleared his throat and the orchestra tuned their instruments. Michel Legrand cannot decide if this film is a Hollywood romance from twenty years earlier, or a modern film defying those old conventions. He is all over the map. In the end, Crown's motive for all of this is that he is bored- I know how he feels. As Dunaway chokes back a sob at the end, and shows the only emotion in "The Thomas Crown Affair," I choked back my popcorn and motioned for the STOP button on the remote.

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]

The Thomas Crown Affair( 1968)

McQueen and Dunaway... partners in crime.

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A review by CinemaSerf

Written by CinemaSerf on Sat Jun 03 2023

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